The trilogy of critically acclaimed and cult-favorite "Drive In" novels by Joe Lansdale is collected for the first time in one volume. The saga is a shaggy dog tale - a splatter/horror/sci-fi/apocalyptic mutant that's set in and styled after the very drive-in B-movie culture it tributes.

The setup: four friends join the legion of drive-in fanatics at the all-night horror movie marathon one Friday night at the Orbit Drive-In in Nacogdoches, TX.

It turns into a real horror show when a mysterious red comet engulfs the entire drive-in in an impenetrable bubble of black goo, which melts skin and bone on contact. Those trapped inside the drive-in quickly devolve into the grisliest "Lord of the Flies" scenarios, resorting to extreme behavior, sex, violence, Darwinism - and cannibalism - in order to stay alive. There's no ceiling or floor to the depravity, and no hope as each day passes with no end to the terrible siege in sight.

What's couched in this Trojan horse - anarchic plotting and imagination, shocking grue, a thick and oft-severed spine of gallows humor, and a chicken-fried, blue-collar local color reminiscent of Stephen King - is a heady stew and treatise on philosophy, morality, the metaphysical, and the life of the mind.

In many ways it's like the television series LOST - if the inhabitants got to their dark hearts a lot quicker and started eating people.

The first volume is fantastic. The middle story is a bit abbreviated and uneven in tone. It tries a lot harder to point out the satire and social commentary. The last volume does a great job of piecing together the cosmology of the freakish universe created, and balance out the soapboxing of Big Ideas and the no-holds-barred nastiness and absurdity of the narrative.

I will say that all the characters in the novellas (especially the 2nd and 3rd installments) start talking the same, and the banter comes off as Aaron Sorkin or a la King in its cloying wit and sameness.

If you loved Bryan Smith's THE FREAKSHOW, the work of Edward Lee, Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth And Now I Must Scream," Stephen King's UNDER THE DOME (especially King's take-the-long-way-home digressions by his characters) - then check these out. ( )

I have to agree with the other reviewers... the first book was great, but the other two devolved into nothing more than a weird, acid-fueled dream that doesn't make any sense. I think this is a very talented writer, particularly considering he wrote the first book in 2 months, but I think he got way ahead of himself with the other two (the second, he regards as his best). It becomes more like strange, alien pornography rather than anything serious. While I think in the first book he actually explored humanity, in the other two he simply exploited it. ( )

Wow what a wild ride. I always wanted to read the Drive-In, so I figured might as well get all 3 books. I really enjoyed this book, it is very wild, imaginative, and has more twists and turns than a crooked country road. Book 1 and 3 are my favorite, book 2 kind of lagged in some parts, if not for book 2 I would have given it 5 stars. Thanks Joe for making my mind work overtime trying to convey the wild imagery in this book! ( )

This book is a collection of three related "Drive-in" novels by Joe R. Lansdale printed together for the first time. The first was pretty interesting. The second didn't seem to go anywhere and I stopped reading it half-way through. I paged through the last one and it looked pretty bizarre, with a plot that didn't seem to make sense or resolve in a satisfying way. There is a lot of imagination in the novels and the first is worth reading if you like horror movies such as Night of the Living Dead, for example. The book is not overly much like that movie, but there are some pages that could have been scenes in it. The book seemed to have something to say about our civilized manners, as well; it has a higher purpose. But I can't say I'd recommend the second or third novels in the collection. Some might like them, but not me... ( )